Masquerade
by Rasputin Zero
Summary: Gaz has always prided herself as the best intimidator in the business, but now she's met her match.


Masquerade  
  
Part One: A Day in the Life  
  
Gaz wasn't happy. She was never happy. Often she was downright miserable but today she was merely 'not happy'. The source of this comparatively good mood was her Game Slave 2, on which she had finally completed that last level that she kept shouting to everyone about. Now she was out to beat her already ridiculously high-score. But luck was not going to be on her side for much longer, as Dib had appeared in the living room.  
  
"Okay. Camera? Check. Camoflage suit? Check. Infra-red goggles? Check. Chocolate bar in case I get peckish during the break-in? DAMN! I knew I forgot something!" Dib blathered to himself again. Gaz's concentration was getting ruined fast, since concentrating on a single object for her was dependent on filtering out all distractions. Unfortunately, she was not blessed with much of an ability on that part, since she was used to monitoring other people's conversation for opinions about herself. It was a hard habit to break.  
  
"Dib, not again. How many times have you gone there and come out with nothing to show for it, except a few fuzzy photos and that damn knee injury you're always complaining about!?" observed Gaz. It was true, you know. Dib's consistent attempts to expose Zim as an alien were generally ill-thought out and tended to follow the same, tired pattern: go to Zim's house and take a few photos. For a boy of unprecedented IQ levels on top of his swollen head, he was exceptionally dumb. Hell, she could go over there, drag Zim out and just THROW him at the media, if either she or the world ever gave a crap.  
  
"Gaz! I HAVE to expose him! The safety of the world is at stake! And my knee's feeling better now, THANKS FOR ASKING!" argued Dib, still in blithe ignorance of the basic facts.  
  
"I've seen him in action, Dib," said Gaz, "he doesn't seem capable of being anything more than a green-skinned dumbass who thinks he's better than the universe." With that sweeping statement, she returned to her game, silently hoping that Dib would just give up and leave her alone. But she should have realised by now, she told herself, that hope almost univerally NEVER springs eternal.  
  
"You may laugh now, but when you witness me single-handedly saving the planet from Zim, THEN you will appreciate me!" oh dear, Dib's going on one of those rants again, "I have spent my entire life searching for these people, and now I've found them, it's up to ME! THE ONLY HOPE HUMANITY'S GOT! TO STOP HIS EVIL SCHEMES FOR TAKING OVER THE PLANET! SOON, YOU WILL LOOK BACK ON MY WORK AND CALL ME A GENIUS! A VISIONARY! A VALUED PROTECTOR OF HUMANITY WHO LET NOTHING INTERFERE WITH....OW!!"  
  
Gaz had just thrown a nearby pot plant at Dib's head, his ranting had got to her. "YOU RUINED MY GAME!" complained Gaz, "honestly Dib, NO ONE CARES! I DON'T CARE! THE NEIGHBOURS DON'T CARE! THE SCHOOLKIDS DON'T CARE! THE WORLD...DOESN'T...CARE! NOW STOP GOING ON ABOUT IT AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" Gaz went back to her game and attempted once again, to reach the high-score. She had had enough of interruptions to her peace. It used to happen all the time, when they picked on her, laughed at her, stole her stuff, but she had fought back, and she felt powerful for it.  
  
"I hope you think back to that statement when Zim's busy using your insides as food seasoning!" yelled Dib, clearly flustered at his sister's apathy, "I'd like to see your 'heartless bitch' act work on him then!" And on that note, Dib stormed out, too annoyed to even remember his chocolate bar. Gaz gritted her teeth throughout this outburst of fluster and noise, trying to play her game without distractions. Now he was gone, and she had the house to herself, she could afford to downgrade her attitude from severely pissed off to merely 'not happy' again.  
  
"Act? Heh, I'd like to see him call it an 'act' when I'm busy making him wish I was never born," Gaz said to herself, allowing herself a mild chuckle at this thought. She continued to play through her game at a withering pace when she heard a sound. It wasn't a 'sound' as such as an indication that she wasn't alone, as her outside hearing was still annoyingly attuned to outside distractions. She tried to ignore it, but was soon regretting that decision as something struck her violently across the head. She could hear vague fragments of sound as she lost consciousness:  
  
"Are you sure that wasn't an invitation?"  
  
Part Two: Stage Tips  
  
Gaz awoke to find herself strapped to a wall in what could mockingly be called 'a base'. It was dilapidated and transparently constructed out of old parts of...what? She could recognize that it was Irken technology, but as much of an idiot Zim was, she had already seen his base and it at least had some SCALE to it. This looked like the closest she could imagine to a 'crash site'. The conclusion should have been fairly obvious, but she was too comatosed to really reach it. In the end, the figure standing in front of her broadcast the conclusion for her.  
  
"Tak?" queried Gaz. She had to ask, as the throbbing headache emanating from her right temple was doing a good job of blocking out most of her sensory inputs. But from the fragments of recent memory that were flooding back to her as she slowly regained consciousness, she could recognize the Irken standing in front of her.  
  
"Hello, Gaz," said Tak slyly, "I was getting impatient, I was going to hit you again just to wake you up. I never really thought of you as a heavy sleeper. Shows how much I know." Tak, seemingly going off in tangents, was staring at Gaz with an interested look in her face.  
  
"What'r you doing here?" asked Gaz, still not really awake enough to try any lateral thinking, "last time I saw you, you were busy drifting into oblivion."  
  
"Well, I had to land somewhere," explained Tak, "now I'm stuck on this poor excuse of a planet with nothing but the equipment in my escape pod, combined with a few other bits and pieces, to assist me. Without my technology I can't exploit people's gullibility, so I'll have to exploit their nuances instead."  
  
"Uh...what?" Gaz exclaimed. She was fully conscious now but even then could barely understand what Tak was going on about.  
  
"Oh well...I guess it's better if you don't understand," said Tak, "I REALLY want off this rock, but if Zim, Dib, Gir or even you got word of my presence, which would be likely for the scheme I have in mind, then my task would be considerably harder."  
  
"But then why go and kidnap me? Don't you think THAT might draw attention by itself?" Gaz theorised, and now in full control of her mind started to fight back, "And if you're planning to hold me here for a while, don't hold your breath." Gaz, now with consciousness restored, was busy finding ways of undoing her restaints, as a prelude to raining horrible painful doom upon  
  
"My plan is to immobilise you one by one without incriminating myself," Tak explained, "I chose you first...because you're the easiest." Gaz did not take kindly to this statement.  
  
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'EASIEST'!?" Gaz yelled, "I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO ACTUALLY STOOD MY GROUND! THE REST OF THEM ARE WIMPS! WHY ME!?" Gaz didn't appreciate being called 'easy'. She was hard, harder than people twice her age. She had grown adept at the act of intimidation, turning it almost into an art form. She had relished this act that made her so powerful, and no one is going to describe her as 'easy', not if she had anything to say about it.  
  
"Oooh, temper temper," soothed Tak, "You really think of yourself as 'the tough one' don't you? Always strong, always domineering, scaring the crap out of other people over the pettiest of things." Gaz knew this better than anyone. Maybe it hadn't always been so. There was a time when she had been picked on, when she was the one on the receiving end of humiliation, but she had fought back, and won, time and again she won her right to be left alone by all the idiots, whiners and bullies of this world.  
  
"When I get out of this I swear I'm gonna break whatever is holding your body together," threatened Gaz, "in fact, you know what? I'm not even gonna wait." On this cue, Gaz started expertly detaching the straps holding her against the wall, bending her fingers at impossible angles to rip the catches off their buckles. After no more than minute she had broken free and was standing in front of Tak with her customary 'I'm gonna get me vengeance' face. "I'm going to walk out that door," Gaz added, "any attempt to stop me will plunge you into a nightmare world from which there is no waking, understood?"  
  
"Oh no!" Tak uttered in mock terror, "please don't hurt me!" Gaz twitched at this sarcastic outburst and made her way towards what she assumed to be the exit. She had just reached it when she was grabbed by the hair and thrown towards the far end of the base which, not being big, impacted with Gaz's head with a satisfying 'clunk'. Gaz recovered and was now hell-bent on revenge.  
  
"OK! THAT'S IT! NOW YOU WILL NOT KNOW THE MEANING OF PEACE AS LONG AS I..."  
  
"SHUT UP!!" Tak interrupted, responding with a punch straight to the jaw, "You think you're all psychopathic and scary? What have you actually done over the years, huh?" Gaz had recovered and was now charging at Tak with as much force as she could muster, but Tak simply kicked her in the stomach, making her wheeze.  
  
"You're...gonna...pay!" Gaz coughed pathetically.  
  
"Really?" answered Tak, punching Gaz again and pinning her to the wall, "And how do you propose to do that? You can threaten, you can cajole, but in the end you're just one little girl who decided to fight back."  
  
One little girl? "DON'T CALL ME THAT! I'M GAZ! NOT 'LITTLE GIRL'! GAZ!" screamed Gaz. This was answered by Tak picking up Gaz and throwing her against another wall. She let out a yelp as she fell to the ground. For good measure, Tak took a running kick into her chest, most likely breaking a few ribs.  
  
"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" said Tak, "an ethereal force bringing terror and pain into the hearts of those who disturb your peace. But I'm guessing, they used to do that all the time didn't they. They used to pick on you a LOT didn't they, little girl?"  
  
Gaz, through all the pain, remembered those years. When she was nothing more than an awkward little girl, a clever girl who never got grades, who was intimidated into doing whatever the bullies wanted her to do. Giving them money, doing their homework, anything to keep away their beatings, Wishing for nothing more than to be left alone. She went home every night with cuts and bruises, but her family was always too caught up in their own lives to recognise poor, little Gaz. Then one day she struck back, and she got away with it. She struck back again, and got away with it. She started getting respect, people started leaving her alone, and life got...BETTER.  
  
"Stop...it..." said Gaz pathetically, starting to feel something she hasn't felt for years, SUBSERVIANCE.  
  
"Or what?" asked Tak, picking up Gaz's bruised face and forcing it to look at her "you think you're so scary, so terrifying, you don't even know the meaning of the word." Tak held up her other hand and slammed it into Gaz's face, leaving her sobbing. "I've done things you can only have nightmares of. I have beaten, tortured, and KILLED my way across the universe to find my way here. I have heard shrilled screams of pain cut short by my own hand! A CENTURY of it! And here in front of me, is a 10-year-old brat, a LITTLE GIRL, who thinks that just because she can imtimidate some pre-skool weaklings that she can call herself some kind of queen bitch. You're play-acting, little girl, you're a willing participant in a masquerade that has gone on for far enough."  
  
"Please...stop..." Gaz was coughing up blood by this point. Tak kicked her in the head in response, which didn't make things better.  
  
"What's this?" Tak asked, "the great and powerful Gaz PLEADING to someone? You thought those days were over didn't you little girl? You thought that everyone was intimidated by you, unwilling to enter your proximity for fear of you. Well this situation has ended, LITTLE GIRL, and anything you say and do is no longer to be considered your own private kingdom. You worthless sack of shit."  
  
Gaz said nothing, she just lay there, shivering and sobbing and mourning her loss of power. But with this was coming an acceptance. She was never going to get that power back, she was always going to be subserviant to something or someone. "Get up," Tak ordered, and Gaz, devoid of resistance, obeyed. She got up slowly, her knees buckling as her weakened frame struggled to keep her upright, her face a mess of cuts and bruises that were once her trademark.  
  
"You are to do what I tell you to do," Tak continued, "any attempt at resistance will be punished. Clear?" Gaz attempted to deny it, one last show of resistance to an overbearing bully, but all she got was a kick to the shin for her trouble. "Clear?" Tak repeated in the same tone of voice. Gaz, once again getting up with considerable difficulty, was no longer so much as crying. She had no will left to do so.  
  
"What do you want me to do?"  
  
Part Three: The Final Curtain  
  
Tak's base wasn't far from her house. It was a fairly long walk, especially with all her joints now creaking in agony. She entered the house a broken figure. Eyes staring blankly in the distance, and a complete unwillingness to recognise the pain she was in. Dib wasn't in, and she didn't even bother searching for dad. She shuffled her way towards the kitchen, constantly on the verge of collapse but somehow willing herself to continue forward. Dib entered as she dissappeared out of sight.  
  
"Darn," Dib exclaimed, clearly not successful, "I was SO close n'all, and now I REALLY feel peckish." Dib limped towards the couch to get what he considerd some well deserved rest, too pissed off to notice the trail of blood leading to the kitchen. He turned on the TV to find that 'Mysterious Mysteries' was running a special on the abominable snowman and how he hides himself by working part-time at a local ice-cream chain's PR division.  
  
Gaz picked up a kitchen knife and walked back into the living room. Dib was so engrossed in the program that he barely noticed as he snuck behind the sofa, despite the heavy wheezing and random coughs that kept emanating from her (must be a really good episode). She thought about what she was doing, how it would've affected her, but her doubts were overwhelmed by a fear of what Tak might do if she found out. She positioned herself behind Dib, then drew up the knife.  
  
Dib himself let out a squeal as she slid the knife across his throat. As the life escaped from his body he keeled forward, soaking the carpet in front of him in crimson. Gaz looked down on his body, and felt nothing. She looked deep inside herself but could find no remorse, no regret, nothing but an empty, emotionless shell. When she looked at what was Dib, she couldn't think of him as anything more than a mass of flesh and bone.  
  
She looked at the knife, now covered in blood that was trickling down to he sleeve. She started wishing for some feeling, any feeling, anything to indicate that she was still a human being. She could not stand to feel nothing for so long. In killing Dib, she had outlived her usefullness to Tak, and if she returned for something else to do, she would probably kill her anyway. With some reluctance, Gaz drew the knife in front of her with both her hands, and pointed it towards her stomach.  
  
She wanted to be free of this feeling of subserviance, but knew that Tak, and anyone else with the guts, would own her for her abilities, in exchange for some break in the pain that was inflicted. There was only one place where she could escape them. Closing her eyes and clenching her teeth, she allowed herself a small tear before she plunged the knife deep into her stomach.  
  
It took Professor Membrane a week before he realised there were two rotting carcasses in his living room.  
  
END 


End file.
